[alicebot-archcomm] Existing interfaces vs. AIML fetch

[Gary Robertson]

Ernest Lergon (earlier):

>The three offered "services" have three *different* interfaces:
>Different parameters, variables, structures. That's natural, because
>they deal with different content. So what makes them more usable than
>the existing interfaces offered already by external servers? What is the
>advantage of re-inventing the wheel?

Gary:
 From what I can see there are very few existing interfaces to extract data 
from external servers available today.  Naturally, we are working with 
these simpler 'services' now because we are just beginning and so we are 
crawling, then walking before we run.  I promise you I have much more 
powerful and interesting services in mind.

It is my personal goal to produce 50+ services over the next year.  I will 
also produce some 'private' services for some of my client's access to 
their own databases.

Having a reasonably powerful 'fetch' facility within AIML makes developing 
these services feasible.  Having an aiml-way to access these services makes 
their availability much more immediate and much more universal to other 
aiml developers.  I like the fact that the AIML Foundation seems to stress 
'openess' and 'community'.  I think that a 'fetch' facility is in keeping 
with this spirit.

Ernest I can appreciate your cries to find a minimalist approach.  I am 
open to the possibilities that a methodology could be developed for 
achieving my goals without a 'fetch'.   Just tell me how.